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| Volume X, Winter 2003, Number 4 |
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| EXCERPT: Water Trade between Israel and Turkey: A Start in the Middle East? |
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| Konuralp Pamukcu |
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Dr. Pamukcu is a faculty member at the University of Pheonix-Chicago and author of Water Politics (Istanbul: Baglam Publications, 2000) and a dozen articles on water disputes in the Euphrates/Tigris and Jordan River Basins. He is a member of the International Water Resources Association (IWRA). This essay is an extended English version of a paper written in Turkish and submitted to SBF Dergisi (Journal of Political Science Faculty of Istanbul University).
Starting with the Military Training
and Cooperation Agreement
signed on February 24, 1996, the
Israeli-Turkish strategic partnership has spread to other fields of cooperation such as trade, tourism and science. After the free-trade agreement, which took effect in May 1997, the trade volume between Israel and Turkey rose in a short time to $1.2 billion. Turkey has become Israel's most important trading partner in the Middle East. Each year about 330,000 Israeli tourists contribute to the Turkish economy, spending around $250 million. Israeli and Turkish companies have been investing individually and jointly in each others' country. Scientific cooperation between universities and scientific institutions in both countries has increased sharply.1
Now Israel and Turkey are about to add a new dimension to their relations: water trade. Israel has been suffering from its worst water crisis, caused by severe droughts for three years in a row (1998-2001) and rapidly increasing water consumption due to population growth and a rise in living standards. The deficit in its water budget threatens Israel's political and economic stability as well as the peace process in the Middle East. So, after long negotiations on the total cost, Israel and Turkey signed an agreement on August 6, 2002, that would make water trade a reality for the first time in the modern history of the Middle East.
1 The Jerusalem Post, August 19, 2000; Milliyet, July 13, 2001.
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